Get out your blenders and vegetables: we discover the benefits of making your own baby food at home.
Brenda Donohue joins three psychology students as they discover what it's like to spend a day around town in a wheelchair.
And Colm Flynn tells us how we can distinguish categorically between Irish and non-Irish products on our supermarket shelves.

Practicalities Of Using Wheelchairs In Dublin

The third year Psychology students from DCU are exploring the personal, social and
practical issues around being a wheelchair user by using one in a number of different contexts.
They went about their studies in the DCU campus in wheelchairs, and last Tuesday three students attempted various tasks around the city centre in Dublin in one.
Brenda Donohue trailed the students:
Aine Maher,
Jamie Gallagher and
Dominic Young.

The wheelchairs we used were donated to us for
free by the Healthy Living Centre at the School of Nursing and Human
Sciences, DCU and by the Irish Wheelchair Association. And just before the show today, we were contacted by the producers of a short film called Welcome To Our World. It was made for the Galway Film Fleadh earlier this year, highlighting problems with access in Galway city. If you're interested in finding out more, go to www.welcometoourworld.org.

Making Your Own Baby Food

Last Wednesday on the programme, Derek spoke to James O’Donovan. James, you may remember, has written a book called How To Save Five Thousand, in which he tells us that by doing a few sums and shopping around, we can all save ourselves thousands of euro each year.

James went on to tell us that some of the ways that he saved money was by changing utility providers, shopping around for groceries, using rechargeable batteries – and making his own baby food.
It appears that you can save yourself a fortune by making your own baby food. The only possible downside is that the pre-made baby food has all sorts of added vitamins and minerals. So you might be saving money if you made your own, but do the savings outweigh any nutritional benefits of pre-bought food?

Our BCO Sinéad Renshaw has a baby girl, and went through the weaning process with her daughter Rebecca a few months ago. Derek finds out how Sinéad got on when weaning, and talks to Paediatric Dietician Ruth Charles, who is founder of NutriKids, an organisation which provides child nutrition advice, from birth to teenage years.

The recipes that Sinéad talks about are Chicken, Potato and Baby Leek Stew, and Banana, Pear and Apple Puree.

Chicken, Potato and Baby Leek Stew

60g chicken
1 potato
1 carrot
1 baby leek
1 spring onion

Place the chicken in a saucepan, and cover with water. Chop all the veg and add to the pot. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.

Blend using a food processor, add boiled water to make the mixture runny or lumpy, depending on your baby's age, and separate into individual portion pots - from ice cube trays to yoghurt pot sized portions.

Banana, Pear and Apple Puree

Peel, core and cook the apple and pear.

Blend in a food processor and add the banana; reblend. Add boiled water to make the mixture runny or lumpy, depending on your baby's age, and separate into individual portion pots - from ice cube trays to yoghurt pot sized portions.

A few weeks ago we had a terrific show down in the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge, County Kildare. On the programme you may remember we had The Nualas singing about Manolo, June Rodgers did her first live radio performance featuring the Return of Oliver Bond and Kathryn Lynch from the Big Fat Breakfast Show sung On Raglan Road - a song written by her grand-uncle Patrick Kavanagh. One man who also had the audience in stitches that night – and who Mooney listeners didn’t get to hear yet - was Cork comedian Colm O’Regan, author of Isn't It Well For Ye?: The Book Of Irish Mammies. So today, we bring you - recorded at the Riverbank Arts Centre - Colm O'Regan!

K Club Wedding Competition

About 22,000 couples get married in Ireland every year – and here on Mooney we’re going to make 2013 lucky for some with a fantastic wedding competition we’re going to be running in January in conjunction with the RTÉ Guide and The K Club! To find out more, tune in, and get a copy of the RTÉ Guide, on January 14th!

The Island Landscape

RTÉ Television, in association with Mooney, is currently producing a major new documentary series on the history of the Irish landscape. The series will tell the story of how our landscape was created after the last major climatic event – the end of the last Ice Age, over ten thousand years ago.
And we want your help! Would you like to contribute video towards the TV series? Click here to find out what we're looking for!